FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ROCK BAND - PAGE 2

New Orleans alternative rock band Mutemath is touring the country, promoting their newest album, Odd Soul. They play Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale on March 16. Teenlink recently spoke with the band's drummer, Darren King, to get ready for the show. So how is the band getting pumped up for the tour's shows? Well, it's easy for me, like I got my whole family here. So this is very different than the other tour. I don't stress about anything. I just hang with my family.

If anyone can put the boogie in the medical manufacturing business it's George Poncy Jr. Poncy dreams of being a rock 'n' roll star, even at age 53. It's not as if he wants to be the next Eric Clapton. Poncy just thinks he can play the guitar as well as all those young twerps on MTV. But in the real world he runs Steridyne Corp., which makes blood pressure cuffs, digital thermometers and - one of its newest products - a gel-encased pad designed to eliminate bedsores. Poncy thought he had the perfect name for the pad. People sleep on it (zzzzz)

They're veterans of the Warped Tour and have three gold records to their names, but the guys in Relient K never will forget where they got their start a decade ago, playing at churches around their hometown of Canton, Ohio. "We couldn't have played in clubs," says the band's lead singer and songwriter, Matt Thiessen, 26. "Nobody would have booked us. And we respect the fact that the church was supportive of us and didn't say, `Oh, you guys are playing those electric guitars. Get out of here, you heathens!

A Van Halen fan doesn't need a reason to forget the name Sammy Hagar, but the reconstituted version of the band that played last night at Sunrise's BankAtlantic Center offered plenty of them, anyway, and certainly no less than 22, the combined number of old and new songs the group performed in a bracingly loud, fleetingly nostalgic set that topped two hours. With original frontman David Lee Roth back at the microphone, Van Halen did its best to close the 28-year gap between “1984,” the last album the band cut with Roth before replacing him with the aforementioned Hagar, and “A Different Kind of Truth,” the surprisingly solid reunion album it released earlier this year.

The Black Crowes have added a second show to their Sunrise stand. The rock band was to play on April 9 at The Sunrise Musical Theatre, but tickets to that concert sold out in about an hour on Friday, so they'll now play on April 10 as well. Tickets to the second show went on sale at 5 p.m. Friday. Also: Courtney Love, frontwoman for the rock band Hole, brings her act to the Edge in Fort Lauderdale on March 13. Opening is the Chicago rock band Catherine, a five-man band whose debut release is Sorry.

CORAL SPRINGS -- Five microphones were stolen from the stage of the Holiday Inn Lounge in the 3100 block of University Drive on Jan. 9, according to police. The microphones belonged to a rock band that performs there.

For Doug Flutie, being the drummer in a rock band is a lot like being a quarterback. "I think in each you have the ability to control tempo," Flutie said. "You have a big say in whether a play or a piece succeeds." Flutie has been recording a CD with his rock band The Flutie Gang. The CD will feature nine original songs and will be released by Frequency Records in the fall. Part of the proceeds will benefit the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. "We cut a CD four or five years ago, but we were disappointed with the production quality; it was kind of a rush job," Flutie told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Fans of rock 'n' roll simulators like Rock Band and Guitar Hero will tell you that it's hard to channel Izzy Stradlin while pounding away at a toy plastic guitar. That's why Peak created the Starpex, the first music game controller with a real wooden neck and double game buttons for hitting the high notes. The guitars are compatible with the PlayStation 2 and 3 versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band and cost $180 each. They come in multiple colors including black and red and are available at go-peak.

West Palm Beach A student-produced concert dubbed Northwoodstock has been rescheduled for Saturday at Northwood University, 2600 N. Military Trail. The six-hour concert originally had been set for Feb. 16, but was canceled because of poor weather. Beginning at 3 p.m., the event will be headlined by Big Sky, a rock band from Gainesville. Other performers include Nifkin, Five Cent Wish, Felix, Tripwire and Stonehouse Legacy. Tickets are $5 at the gate and free for all Northwood University students, faculty and staff with IDs. Children 12 and under also are free.

BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Robert Petersen, who wrote several songs recorded by the Grateful Dead rock band, died Monday night after a long illness. He was 50. Mr. Petersen, who was born in Oregon and grew up in Sacramento, Calif., was a college friend of Grateful Dead bass guitarist and composer Phil Lesh and stayed close to the band through the 1960s and 1970s. The nature of his illness was not disclosed. His songs recorded by the group included New Potato Caboose, Pride of Cucamonga and Unbroken Chain.